Growth in Gulf countries set to recover in 2020: Emirates NBD | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Growth in Gulf countries set to recover in 2020: Emirates NBD | ZAWYA MENA Edition:

Growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is set to recover in 2020, following a subdued performance in the previous year.

According to Emirates NBD’s Global Outlook 2020, growth in the Gulf states’ real gross domestic product (GDP), an indicator of the health of an economy, is forecast to rise by 1.47 percent in 2020, up from an estimated 0.5 percent for 2019.

In the UAE, the real GDP growth is expected to hit 1.6 percent this year, driven by non-oil sectors, according to the report. A United Nations (UN) report estimates that the UAE’s real GDP grew at 1.1 percent in 2019, while official data show that real growth accelerated by 2.1 percent in the first half of 2019.

For Saudi Arabia, the real GDP growth is likely to reach 1.3 percent in 2020, up from the official estimate of 0.4 percent in 2019, while non-oil sector growth is likely to slow somewhat.